Ernő Goldfinger

Infobox Architect


image_size = (if image is smaller than 250px)
caption =
name = Ernő Goldfinger
nationality = Hungarian
birth_date = birth date|1902|11|11
birth_place = Budapest, Hungary
death_date = death date and age|1987|11|15|1902|11|15
death_place = London, England
alma_matter = École nationale supérieure des beaux arts
practice_name =
significant_buildings= 2 Willow Road
Alexander Fleming House
Balfron Tower
Carradale House
Trellick Tower
Glenkerry House
significant_projects =
significant_design =
awards =

Ernő Goldfinger (November 11, 1902 – November 15, 1987) was a Hungarian-born architect and designer of furniture, and a key member of the architectural Modern Movement after he had moved to the United Kingdom.

Biography

Goldfinger was born in Budapest. The family business was forestry and saw-mills. This led Goldfinger to consider a career in engineering, until he became interested in architecture after reading Hermann Muthesius's "Das englische Haus". He continued to recommend the book (a description of English domestic architecture around the turn of the century) for most of his life.

In 1921 Goldfinger moved to Paris after the collapse, following World War I, of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1923 he went to study at the École nationale supérieure des beaux arts in the atelier of Léon Jaussely, and in the following years got to know many other Paris based architects including Auguste Perret, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. In 1929, before finishing his course, Goldfinger established a partnership and worked on a number of interior designs and an extension to a holiday home at Le Touquet.

He was strongly influenced by the publication of Le Corbusier's "Vers une architecture", and became a fervent admirer of Le Corbusier's former mentor, Auguste Perret, an expert in designing reinforced concrete structures. This would later be an inspiration for Goldfinger when designing his own home.

In the early 1930s Goldfinger met and married Ursula Blackwell, heiress to the Crosse & Blackwell fortune. They moved to a flat in Highpoint I, London in 1934. Before World War II, Goldfinger built only his own house (and two others) at 1-3 Willow Road in Hampstead, North London, and another at Broxted, Essex. His own house, 2 Willow Road, is now in the care of the National Trust.

After the war, Goldfinger was commissioned to build new offices for the "Daily Worker" newspaper and the headquarters of the British Communist Party. He also built Alexander Fleming House at Elephant and Castle in south-east London for the Ministry of Health. In the 1950s he designed two London primary schools from prefabricated pre-cast concrete with brick infill for the London County Council, one of which in Putney was considerably damaged by a rogue developer who was prosecuted for the damage in 2007 and failing to restore it in 2008. A discussion about Ernő with Ursula Goldfinger's cousin on a golfcourse prompted Ian Fleming to name the James Bond adversary and villain "Auric Goldfinger" after Ernő. Goldfinger consulted his lawyers when the book was published in 1959 (which prompted Fleming to threaten to rename the character 'Goldprick') but eventually decided not to sue; Fleming's publishers agreed to pay his costs and gave him six free copies of the book. Goldfinger was a serious man and sometimes fired his assistants if they were inappropriately jocular. [cite news | author = Ben Macintyre | title = Was Ian Fleming the real 007? | publisher = The Times | date = 2008-04-05 | url = http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article3652410.ece | accessdate=2008-04-08]

In an attempt to solve the huge shortage of housing in the country following World War II, in which nearly 4 million houses had been destroyed or damaged, [cite web|title = Section VII (History), J (World War II and Its Aftermath), J2 (Postwar Britain)|work = United Kingdom|publisher = MSN Encarta Online Encyclopedia|date=2006|url = http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553483_27/United_Kingdom.html|accessdate = 2006-10-04] the British Government began to see high-rise buildings as a solution, and Goldfinger rose to prominence in England as a designer of tower blocks.

Among his most notable buildings of the period were Balfron Tower, 27-floor high (north of the Blackwall Tunnel, in Poplar in the east London Borough of Tower Hamlets), and the adjacent eleven-storey Carradale House. These served as models for the design of the similar 31-floor Trellick Tower (in North Kensington; started 1968, completed 1972). Although Goldfinger enjoyed living in his own buildings, they were unpopular both amongst the public and many post-modernist architects. Towards the end of the 20th century Goldfinger's work has become more appreciated. Trellick Tower is now a grade II* listed building and has become something of a design icon, appearing on t-shirts, paintings and in the lyrics of a song by Blur. The few privately owned flats within fetch high prices at sale, and waiting lists for those that remain social housing are long. Balfron Tower and Carradale House are also listed grade II*, while another of Goldfinger's Poplar blocks, Glenkerry House, is run as a housing co-operative and is regarded as a model for management of buildings of the type.

Goldfinger died in 1987 and was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium where his ashes remain.

Buildings by Ernő Goldfinger

*2 Willow Road
*Alexander Fleming House
*Balfron Tower
*Trellick Tower
*Carradale House
*Fulton House, on the campus of Swansea University
*Glenkerry House
*Greenside School
*Haggerston Girls School [cite press release|title = Heritage Minister Andrew McIntosh announces plans to list post-war landmark 'Timepiece' sculpture at Tower Bridge|publisher = Department for Culture, Media and Sport|date = 2003-09-17|url = http://www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Press_notices/archive_2003/dcms104_2003.htm|accessdate = 2006-10-04]
*The Weiss shop. 2 and 2a Golders Green Road (1935) [ [http://www.barnet.gov.uk/golders-green.pdf Golders Green Conservation Area character appraisal] ]
*Brandlehow School and the attached caretaker's cottage. [cite press release|title = Developer bulldozed listed building|publisher = Wandsworth Council date = 2007-11-21|url = http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/Home/MyWandsworth/Pressreleases/newspage_detail.htm?id=5419|accessdate = 2007-11-21]

References

*"Ernő Goldfinger: The Life of an Architect" by Nigel Warburton (Routledge, 2004) ISBN 0415258537.
* [http://www.designmuseum.org/design/index.php?id=132 Ernő Goldfinger: Designing Modern Britain]

ee also

*List of architects

External links

* [http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/virtualphilosopher/2006/09/the_real_goldfi.html The Real Goldfinger]
* [http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/virtualphilosopher/2007/01/lynsey_hanley_a.html Towerblock Living]

Persondata
NAME= Goldfinger, Ernő
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Hungarian-born British architect
DATE OF BIRTH= 1902-11-11
PLACE OF BIRTH= Budapest, Hungary
DATE OF DEATH= 1987-11-15
PLACE OF DEATH= London, England